Dillan has been working on a research paper about the Salem Witch Trials.......hmmm......the pictures are of him AFTER he completed this project tonight!
Really, I started playing with my iPhone and I found a new app and this was one of the examples I was able to make! After making it I thought it looked a bit bewitching. I thought of the tragedies that occurred during the 1692 witch hunts. If you've never read about these tragedies it might be something you want to research. I had never really read about this...if I did, I don't remember! I'm still in awe of what happened and why!
The story began when two young girls became sick and began complaining of being bitten and pinched by something invisible. Some believed these strange fits occurred after a group of girls met in the woods to "divine what sort of men their future husbands might be." After this the girls began showing strange symptoms and having "fits". Doctors began to watch these girls. One doctor decided it must be witchcraft and convinced one of the slaves, Tituba to make a "witch cake"....made of rye meal and urine from the girls. The cake was fed to a dog....if the dog began displaying the same strange symptoms, then they were bewitched! This scared the girls and their strange behavior worsened. (Tituba was an Indian with African background and was familiar with African influences of the occult.) The girls accused three women of tormenting them and the women were arrested. Two of the women denied the charges, but then Tituba confessed to being a witch, and accused others of causing the "afflictions" on the girls. Some of the accused were not liked by people in the town, but soon "good church goers" were being accused and taken to jail and many of them were hung. Those who confessed to witchcraft were given reduced sentences, yet those who denied any witchcraft were hung. Strange, huh? Many times witchcraft offered an explanation to many of the sicknesses that the doctors were unable to cure. Some even compared the fits of hysteria to the "quaking" of the Quakers.
I'm not sure anyone has ever come up with answers. I do know it must have been a great tragedy....women and men were hung...some chose hanging over lieing about being a witch! All in all, I enjoyed reading the information. Sometimes we think we live in the "worst of times" but after reading about the Salem Witch Trials, I'm reminded that life has not always been perfect. We will always face trials....some will be easy to overcome, but some will be quite fearful...just as these Salem residents!
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